1. California Gold Rush

2. DO NOW (LEFT SIDE of Notebook) What material object do you value most? What would you be willing to go through to get that object?

3. Gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California in January of 1848. News of the discovery spread Fortune seekers of a variety of backgrounds, social classes, and areas of the country came

4. More than half of the "Forty-Niners" came overland in wagon trains 80,000 emigrants had poured into California by the end of 1849. –½ worked in mines –½ set up businesses in towns to profit from mines

5. The "Gold Rush“ brought large numbers of Americans to the West A handful returned home, a few made great fortunes, but most stayed to settle California and bring it to statehood.

6. Life of a Forty-Niner Below your Do Now you will write a letter You have traveled to California hoping to make your fortune in the Gold Rush. You are writing a letter home to your wife to tell her what life is like working in California in the gold mines.